What to look for as the Houston Rockets face the San Antonio Spurs

The Houston Rockets will take on the San Antonio Spurs tonight on TNT at 8 p.m. ET. The Spurs head into tonight’s preseason bout 2-2 while the Rockets remain a perfect 4-0. The Rockets have beaten the Oklahoma City Thunder, Shanghai Sharks, New York Knicks and Memphis Grizzlies thus far – all by wide margins. The Spurs have beaten the Denver Nuggets and lost to the Orlando Magic while splitting games against the Sacramento Kings this preseason.

For the Rockets, Chris Paul remains doubtful to play due to a left knee injury that kept him out of Wednesday’s game against the Memphis Grizzlies. Paul told reporters that he would’ve played against the Grizzlies had it been a regular season game. What’s encouraging is that Tarik Black is finally set to make his debut after returning to Houston as a free agent. Black has been out with a knee contusion for some time now. Since the Rockets are still trying to get their real-game rotations in, it’ll be interesting to see where Black lands in the rotation.

The Spurs will have superstar Kawhi Leonard out due to a lingering quad issue – their priority is ensuring he’s ready for the season. Leonard is still not a lock to play in their season opener. Dejounte Murray has a hip contusion and will be held out from a team already missing point guard Tony Parker. While the Rockets will probably use today to sure up their rotations, the Spurs might use it as something of a rest day.

Related

Speaking of rotations, the Rockets announced five cuts this afternoon. George de Paula, Chris Johnson, Tim Quarterman and Isaiah Taylor were all sent home. Johnson and Taylor had each been among the first brought off the bench from non-rotation players – it seems that the organization is now comfortable running veteran Bobby Brown as the backup point guard and Chinanu Onuaku as backup big. Troy Williams and Zhou Qi both made the cut list as well which is encouraging for two guys Houston fans have really liked this preseason.

What we’re looking for tonight is to see the final rotations in play. We’re expecting to have everyone outside of Chris Paul show up tonight – we already have an idea of what his minutes are going to be moving forward. We can assume that Eric Gordon slides into the starting lineup tonight but what’s going to be telling is seeing how the bigs work out. Clint Capela, Nene and Tarik Black are all healthy now and Black is the assumed third-string center. Nene has been used in different situations but those are also dependent on Ryan Anderson’s health. P.J. Tucker and Luc Mbah a Moute have been working at the four and even small ball five at times so each player is definitely valuable at either big position. With the exception of Anderson, none of these guys really really a major drop-off from the other defensively so either way it’s run, the Rockets should be comfortable.

While the outcome of tonight’s game shouldn’t matter, it would be nice to see a perfect preseason record. The threes didn’t have the same efficiency last game as they’ve had every other game but teams are going to have off-nights every once in a while. What we’re hoping for is a decrease in the amount of turnovers. The Rockets get a lot of possessions per game, of course, but that doesn’t negate the fact that turnovers are obviously harmful and can really lead to the downfall of a team on any given night.

Email

Like this article?

Sign up for the Rockets Wire email newsletter to get our top stories in your inbox every morning

An error has occured

Please re-enter your email address.

Thanks for signing up!

You'll now receive the top Rockets Wire stories each day directly in your inbox.